Always interested in getting other Mustachian's thoughts on real estate issues. I rent a home in Dallas, TX and was alerted to some large changes coming to the way the City of Dallas addresses SFH rentals. It is being brought by the "Code Compliance Services - Office of Equity and Human Rights," which requires that every single-family home in the city be registered and pay an annual fee of ~$50. Additionally, every home is required to go through an exterior and interior review. This can be done annually at the city's discretion.
I received their PowerPoint and the images they showed were of dirty sinks not meeting minimum requirements - and then being cleaned (which makes me wonder, if they inspect a dirty house, and the tenant is there, wouldn't it be the tenant's mess?)
It reminds me of something you would have to do if you rented Section 8, but almost worse. Interestingly, they do NOT have this same requirement for multi-dwelling unit (MDU) apartments or condo complexes. Seems to me like a great way to make it more difficult for small time landlords to rent, while driving tenants that will lose housing to the mega-corp MDUs.
I can see the other side where it could help for dangerous living conditions, however it seems like egregious concerns could be taken care of within existing state and federal levels. Part of me thinks this may come down to first-level views of government and their roles. Are any other landlords seeing this in their cities? I hadn't heard of it before and I've lived across Texas and a couple other states. What do you think? Would love to hear people's opinions.